Poetry

Randy Blasing's ninth book of poems, set now in memory in his native Minnesota and now in New England, New Mexico, or Turkey, centers on his drama of dying four times in open-heart surgery and emerging from his near-death experience a different person, with renewed faith in the sanctity of every day.

"A Change of Heart, with its nod to Auden, is a mature collection celebratory of life. The speaker who cheats death is that much more aware of the living, breathing world around him. Heightened meditations are rendered in tender, explosive sonnets and exact blank verse. Here is the heart as muscle and life force, as vehicle for romance, as the beating meter of each of these glorious poems." --Denise Duhamel

"James Wright famously aspired to write poetry that privileged, above all, 'the pure, clear word.'

Randy Blasing seeks the same demanding goal in this fluent and moving collection of sonnets and near-sonnets, poems limpid, graceful, and fearless in their reckonings with mortality, in which craft and longing are alchemized into something like wonder." --David Wojahn

Randy Blasing's ninth book of poems, set now in memory in his native Minnesota and now in New England, New Mexico, or Turkey, centers on his drama of dying four times in open-heart surgery and emerging from his near-death experience a different person, with renewed faith in the sanctity of every day.

In A User's Guide to Spacetime, the human desire to be immortal is a recurrent theme. Thus, in "Techwed," as the carrier of life, the astronaut "dons an algorithm like a vest, / Assembles the hybrid," and then "hears the wheels of Infinity grind." In "Siblings of the Sun," he is "Born in the unconscious," and, in "Pseudosphere," he is "in Ge's breath-body based." Significantly, even in "Herald," although the Hermetic lapis, "the figure [of Christ] veiled in matter," exists "in some other place [. . .] / Light years from Earth," the astronaut himself remains immortal because he is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. For that reason, in "Compass," he may "Restore the Rebis"--the "dual being born of the alchemical union of opposites" (masculine/feminine) and recognized as "a symbol of the self"--and may "Beyond the compass of the symbol rise." In other words, as these poems demonstrate, "Faith-based the astronaut pursues his course" ("Station"). However, they also suggest that, when the treasure is hard to attain, there is always "more to be sought than the scripture".

Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles' mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome. His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and lure him into the world of the dead itself--all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods. Ultimately, he reaches the promised land of Italy where, after bloody battles and with high hopes, he founds what will become the Roman empire. An unsparing portrait of a man caught between love, duty, and fate, the Aeneid redefines passion, nobility, and courage for our times. Robert Fagles, whose acclaimed translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were welcomed as major publishing events, brings the Aeneid to a new generation of readers, retaining all of the gravitas and humanity of the original Latin as well as its powerful blend of poetry and myth. Featuring an illuminating introduction to Virgil's world by esteemed scholar Bernard Knox, this volume lends a vibrant new voice to one of the seminal literary achievements of the ancient world.

Composed by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon singer toward the end of the first millennium CE, Beowulf is an Old English epic tale recounting the adventures of Beowulf, a Geatish hero from present-day Sweden. He is called on by Hrothgar, King of the Danes, to defeat Grendel, the powerful monster that threatens his great hall.

As one of the earliest extant poems in a modern European language, it depicts a feudal world of blood, victory, and death--a world that exalts heroes who travel great distances to prove their strength, at impossible odds, against supernatural demons and beasts.

Ringing with the beauty, power, and artistry that have kept its poetry alive for a thousand years, this venerable tale is now available as an elegantly designed clothbound edition with an elastic closure and a new introduction from Tom Schneider.

The description for this book, Complete Poems and Selected Letters of Michelangelo, will be forthcoming.

Although best known for his short stories, Edgar Allan Poe was by nature and choice a poet. From his exquisite lyric "To Helen," to his immortal masterpieces, "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," and "The Raven," Poe stands beside the celebrated English romantic poets Shelley, Byron, and Keats, and his haunting, sensuous poetic vision profoundly influenced the Victorian giants Swinburne, Tennyson, and Rossetti.

Today his dark side speaks eloquently to contemporary readers in poems such as "The Haunted Palace" and "The Conqueror Worm," with their powerful images of madness and the macabre. But even at the end of his life, Poe reached out to his art for comfort and courage, giving us in "Eldorado" a talisman to hold during our darkest moments--a timeless gift from a great American writer.

Includes an Introduction by Jay Parini
and an Afterword by April Bernard

Jason E. "Jay" Walker was raised in Cranston, a suburb at the southern border of Providence, RI. He's never been interested in anything but the arts and humanities - entertaining, educating, inspiring, moving, and connecting (with) people - and everything he's done with his life is to pursue his lifelong dream of success in those fields. He was first alternate for the Providence Poetry Slam(TM) team in 1999 and has performed in and/or hosted poetry events throughout the RI area. He's also an established actor in RI independent film and semi-professional theater. He currently lives in Hopedale, MA, but he plans to one day live in warmer climes and travel the world.

These poems, which examine the spiritual as well as the psychological effects of being a Christian, offer an amalgam of diverse yet related influences: John Donne's "Holy Sonnets"; Alfred, Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam A.H.H.; and Emily Dickinson's "Behind me--dips Eternity--." Another significant source may also be apparent: the sonnet sequences of such Renaissance poets as Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, and William Shakespeare. However, although the poems in Galactic Pilgrim generate a sense of thematic sequence, and although--composed of octets with variable rhyme schemes--they proceed in the same stanzaic form, they are, most decidedly, not sonnets. Rather, they are, as samples of formal poetry, what their author prefers to call either "triads" (since each poem contains three stanzas) or "quaternals" (a coinage that underscores the role of the reader as the fourth component, the co-creative entity, that responds to, and intertwines with, each triadic structure). All in all, reflecting key concepts from Jungian psychology and the new physics, these patterned lyrics seek to unfold--through form no less than through content--a unified and coherent philosophic vision steeped in the model life of the Christian Redeemer.

Troubling things are happening at a small town asylum. Trapped in a patient room during a riot, one nurse records what might be her final thoughts-and peers into the minds of her subjects in a series of disturbing stories. Fearing for her life, she desperately waves her hand through the bars of her window hoping someone will notice and help... but by then it may be too late.

The left shoe angrily kicked the right shoes heel;
it wanted to step into its space ideal
instead of being forced to move sideways
and switch its preplanned straight path into a maze.

In the narrative poem The Joys of Learning on Graduation Day, two shoes have stage rage. Like these shoes, we may occasionally want only a single straight path. Most times, though, the mazes of our lives completely amaze us. Especially on a holiday or a celebration, we love having the freedom to choose our way amid diverse pathways.

Holidays Amaze has different kinds of poetry: maze poems, prayer poems, shaped poems, sonnets, and narratives. The varied poems are enhanced by Christian content, historic elements, dream/reality sections, and amazing interactions among family members, friends, and animals. In Holidays Amaze, success often happens, such as with resolutions on New Years Day, an unblocked writers block, a reduction of anxiety, and a decrease in impatience while waiting in line.

Multimodal elements add to the amazing content of Holidays Amaze. Images are visible in the mazes, photos, metaphors, formats, shapes, and icons. Aural components can be heard in the rhythms, rhymes, alliteration, and other sound elements.

Leah Keith has won the Allen Ginsberg Award for outstanding poetry through the VSA of RI three times, and she was chosen to represent them as their Poet Laureate for the past three years. As the Poet Laureate she has been given themes to write about and read her poems at certain events such as, the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act at the Pawtucket, Rhode Island Town Hall.
Leah has a voice and she wants you to know it. She wants you to hear her before you decide who she is. She wants you to see her and take the time to get to know her before you think you already do. She will surprise you with her unique wisdom and colorful sense of humor. She is not what you expect her to be. She is proud of who she Is and she makes no apologies for it. In this book Leah uses her voice in the form of poetry and art.